Fried foods are high in saturated fat and trans fat, so they promote plaque buildup in arteries that can put you at risk for coronary artery disease, heart failure, heart attack, and stroke. There are small steps you can take to make fried foods healthier or to help limit them altogether.
Fried foods are typically high in trans fats
In fact, trans fats are associated with an increased risk of many diseases, including heart disease, cancer, diabetes and obesity (6, 7 , 8). Since fried foods are cooked in oil at extremely high temperatures, they are likely to contain trans fats.
The Takeaway: Deep-frying can be part of the healthy kitchen on occasion, especially when you fry naturally lean, nutrient-dense foods like fish, veggies, or grains.
The healthiest oils are those that are high in monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, such as vegetable oil and olive oil. These types of fats can help lower your risk of heart disease when used instead of saturated fats.
One can't fry food stuffs like vegetables for example, with water because the boiling point of water is less than that of the oil. Usually all food stuffs will have water content. In fact, we fry food stuffs to remove this water for which they should be heated beyond the boiling point of water (100°C).
We generally try to reach for monounsaturated fats when pan-frying. These healthy fats are liquid at room temperature (as compared to saturated fat like lard, butter and coconut oil that are solid at room temp). Our favorite healthy fats for pan-frying are avocado oil, canola oil and olive oil.
A high intake of trans fats is associated with all sorts of chronic diseases, including heart disease, obesity, cancer, and diabetes ( 10 ). If a product lists hydrogenated oil as an ingredient, it likely contains trans fats. For optimal health, avoid these products.
These are oils like soybean, corn, canola, sunflower, and safflower. They're unstable fats – they're not bound together tightly at all. Because they are unstable, they can produce higher levels of free radicals when they're heated.
Olive oil actually has a relatively high smoke point and is a safe, reliable option for frying. On top of that, it is one of the healthiest cooking staples around. Olive oil has been named “the healthiest fat on Earth,” in part because of its unique ability to reduce the risk of heart disease.
Although care must be taken in handling and processing of canola oil and other vegetable oils, canola oil is a safe and healthy form of fat that will reduce blood LDL cholesterol levels and heart disease risk compared to carbohydrates or saturated fats such as found in beef tallow or butter.
Besides provoking inflammation, fried foods are often also high in sodium as well as harmful saturated fats. If you choose to indulge in them, do it sparingly. And avoid foods fried in animal fats; instead, choose foods fried in vegetable oils.
Given the fact that they're deep-fried in hydrogenated oils, fries come packed with a high amount of trans fat, which raises your bad cholesterol and lowers your good cholesterol. The profound effect of this is that you'll boost your heart disease risk.
Although butter contains saturated fats but these fats are heart-healthy while the poly-unsaturated fat (omega 6 fatty acid) in oils are unwanted fats which may cause inflammation, and should be avoided.
Are Air-Fried Foods Better for You? By most measures, air frying is healthier than frying in oil. It cuts calories by 70% to 80% and has a lot less fat. This cooking method might also cut down on some of the other harmful effects of oil frying.
Vegetable oil in cooking
Vegetable oils have low levels of antioxidants and can release potentially harmful compounds when heated. Researchers have linked these compounds with various forms of cancer, Alzheimer's disease, and Parkinson's disease.
Health concerns about canola oil are unfounded. Canola oil, which is extracted from the seeds of the canola plant, is generally recognized as safe by the Food and Drug Administration.
Another health bonus of all vegetable oils is that they do not have any trans fats in them. Firm fats can clog blood vessels. The firmer a fat is at room temperature, the more saturated it is. Saturated fats can increase your blood cholesterol levels and clog your blood vessels.
Choose plant-based oils rich in unsaturated fat.
The heart association suggests the following cooking oils, which meet its health standards: canola, corn, olive, peanut, safflower, soybean and sunflower, as well as specialty oils like avocado, grape-seed and sesame.
Not only does high-quality extra virgin olive oil stand up to the task of high heat cooking, it also aids in bringing out the flavors of your dish. In many regions around the world, people have been frying with extra virgin olive oil for centuries.
Repeated heating of vegetable oils at high temperatures during cooking is a very common cooking practice. Repeatedly heated cooking oils (RCO) can generate varieties of compounds, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), some of which have been reported as carcinogenic.
When the oil is heated ahead of its smoke point, it gives off toxic smoke. As olive oil has a low smoking point, cooking with it increases the risk of creating smoke that includes compounds which are harmful to your health. You may not even realise that you are breathing in the toxic fumes.
Many of the top leading plant-based doctors recommend a reduction or elimination of oil in the diet for improved health. While fat is a key component in the diet and should not be eliminated, oils are considered a refined, processed fat. Let's dive into why some cook without oil and how to do it.
One of the main arguments for the Vegan No Oil Diet is that oils are calorie dense and thereby an easy way to add extra calories which can cause weight gain. Many “no oil” advocates are quick to mention that one tablespoon of oil contains roughly 100 calories and one cup contains around 2000 calories.